Nikki Haley Wants to be Vice President, While a Georgia Judge Helps Out a Domestic Abuser

(UPDATE: This post has been updated due to earlier transmission problems between the shebeen and FOTP World HQ. The hamster sprained an ankle.)

Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what's goin' down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin' gets done, and where all the flower ladies want back what they have lent you.

We begin this week in the home office of American sedition where Governor and civil-rights hero Nikki Haley is auditioning vigorously for the second spot on the Anybody For President ticket.

"Black lives do matter," Haley said. "It's all about working together. We don't think we get anything done by yelling. We get everything done by communicating. ...We will listen to you and work for you and try to bring you together. It's not just black lives matter, we've got lots of groups that want to yell and scream. You can do that, but it's not going to get you anywhere."

During Santiago's trial, South Georgia Circuit Superior Court Chief Judge A. Wallace Cato discovered that Santiago "beat his wife after learning that she was having an affair," and that the couple had since reconciled. Judge Cato also asked whether Santiago and his wife "get in bed together and get it on?" When they said that they do, indeed, have sex, the judge complained that the prosecution was "a little ridiculous" and asked Santiago if he thought that his wife would hold a conviction "over his head" in order to "make you do what she says." After Santiago responded that, yes, he did think his wife would hold it over his head if he were convicted for tying her up and beating her, Judge Cato dismissed the case.

The decision got overturned because the appeals court was not on acid when it hit their bench. Nevertheless, the fact that this judge's name is Cato is what makes this story art.

Staying in the American southeast, we drop by the newly-insane state of North Carolina. Back when Nikki Haley was becoming the reincarnation of Sojourner Truth as regards the Confederate flag, Pat McCrory, Art Pope's thumb-puppet in the North Carolina governor's mansion, made some interesting mouth-noises about removing the gonfalon of treason from his state's license plates. Now that the fuss has died down, McCrory is hitting the silk.

In her brief email to McCrory on June 23, Anderson contended there was nothing racial about the Confederate battle flag and questioned the attempt to "rewrite history."

Who knows what you're going to change next?" Anderson wrote. "The more you cater to this complaining bunch, the more they are going to gripe." She reiterated those concerns when reached by phone at her home in Hudson, N.C., last week. "I think people have the right to be able to, if they want to, put that on their tag," Anderson said. "I feel like they're trying to take our rights away from us a little bit at a time." In email after email, released by the Governor's Office as part of a public records request, hundreds of people expressed similar viewpoints in messages criticizing McCrory's stance on ending the license plate emblazoned with the Confederate battle flag. While hundreds of people wrote to support the governor's move, they were vastly outnumbered by those who opposed it. That outcry may not matter much: State lawmakers and the governor have pointed at each other for the next step in taking the tag off the table, and months after the conversation began, there's been no real change.

Profiles in courage!

(By the way, we will pause here on our tour for some serious business. Recently, Cass Sunstein wrote that the concern over the impact of the money power in our politics may be overblown. Sunstein's argument fails dismally out in the states, where the money power has perverted almost every institution of government. Art Pope's sublet of North Carolina's government is a prime example. OK, everybody back on the bus now.)

According to the complaint, the AG's office in July 2014 received a confidential tip that numerous cash deposits were made into Duran's bank accounts that "appeared to be incongruent when compared to known sources of income." An investigation revealed a pattern of large amounts of cash and campaign contributions deposited into personal and campaign accounts, the subsequent transfer of funds between the accounts, and "large debits for cash expenditures" at casinos throughout the state, the complaint said. According to the complaint, Duran withdrew a total of $147,641 in 2013 and $282,807 in 2014 at Buffalo Thunder Casino, Camel Rock Casino, Casino Apache, Inn of the Mountain Gods, Ohkay Casino, Ruidoso Downs, San Felipe Casino and Sandia Casino from her personal accounts. The largest chunks of the withdrawals, totaling $95,700 in 2013 and $150,256 in 2014, were at Sandia Casino. The complaint outlines more than a dozen alleged incidents of misappropriation and misreporting of campaign contributions. In one instance, for example, a $500 check to her campaign from lobbying firm Shoats and Weaks Inc., given after the November 2014 election, was allegedly put into Duran's personal checking account as part of a deposit to cover an overdrawn balance.

The punchline is coming, of course. Wait for it.

Duran is a Republican in her second term; she was elected in 2010 and re-elected last year. The secretary of state, who oversees elections and campaign finance, has the role of state government ethics regulator.

And we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma, whence Blog Official Blue Norther Anemometer Friedman of the Plains brings us the tale of some Sooner who won't be fooled by your Illuminati plumbing treachery.

The temporary closures caused interesting conspiracy theories to circulate around the United States. Some people told News On 6 they believed the store in Tulsa was not emptied of people because of needed renovations, but it was being used instead as a secret indoor military camp to train the U.S. Army to carry out martial law. Others said they believed Walmart closed the doors because it was trying to punish local workers for wanting to join a union.

See? One group of people thinks the Walmart was closed because the federal government was preparing to institute martial law from the basement and another group of people thinks the Walmart was closed because Walmart doesn't like unions much. Both, however, are "conspiracy theories" because Both Sides!

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